Tropes
by The-KLF
Summary: Drabble challenge full of #CastleFanficTropes. You can find the original list on my tumblr (check the tropes tag) and drop me a line if you'd like to add a new one to the list!
1. Prompt 1 - bodyswap

_I reblogged a writing meme on tumblr that requested people to pick a trope from a list and provide a fandom / pairing, and then they would receive a few notes or a snippet of the story I'd write based on that. I was prompted by four anons, and decided to take the plunge and make it into a drabble challenge. You can see the list on my tumblr (head for the "tropes" tag) and I'm happy to take more prompts if you think of one that's not on there that you'd like to see!  
_

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

_Prompt 1: bodyswap_

"But sir, if she's following me around how am I meant to keep her safe, as well as me, _and_ the rest of my team?" Rick Beckett shifted his weight from one side to the other, his left hand resting on his hip and the other wrapped across his stomach, his fingertips fiddling with his shoulder holster as he spoke to his Captain.

"I'm sure you'll work something out, Beckett." Montgomery dismissed him with a mere flick of his eyebrow, and he stalked out of his boss' office only to be met with the insufferably beautiful face of his favourite author, one Kate Castle.

"Guess you're in, Castle." His desk phone started ringing, and she waited until he'd walked past her to pump her fist and do a little happy dance, causing Esposito and Ryan to laugh at her antics. "Beckett? ...where? Okay, we'll be there in twenty."

Castle dragged a beat-up chair over to Beckett's desk, listening in to the conversation. "Ooh, do we have a case?"

"Yeah, we do," he pointed at himself, Esposito and Ryan. "You have paperwork. Go see Montgomery."

"Aw, come on, Beckett! Let me see the crime scene!" She wasn't above begging, this guy had kicked her inspiration into overdrive and she was already addicted.

"Not till you sign your life away, Castle." He put his jacket on, sequestered his keys and phone into a pocket and headed out of the bullpen with a smug wave to his new shadow.


	2. Prompt 2 - fake dating

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

_Prompt 2: pretending to be married / fake dating_

"Castle, what the hell's gotten into you today?" His eyes closed briefly in response, panic in his loud exhale.

"I could well ask the same of you, Beckett, what did the captain want this morning?" She growled under her breath and he didn't miss the anger that flashed in her eyes.

"We... we have to go undercover," she gritted out. "On a date."

He, for once, remained silent.

"I've shared, Castle, now it's your turn. Spill." Her eyes bored into him as he shrank down in his chair. He cleared his throat.

"I, uh..." He coughed again. "I spoke to Paula this morning. She might've, um, mentioned something about that."

Her jaw drops open. "And when were you planning on telling me?!" He had great trouble meeting her eye. "Ugh, Castle! I cannot believe you knew!"

He scratched a tiny freckle on his hand, inspecting his thumb's progress across the back of his hand minutely. She almost missed his reply, the _sotto voce_ almost certainly not as his mother had taught him, "You could always say no, Beckett."

She swallowed her retort at the glimpse behind the playboy mask and reached over to stop his worrying fingers, startling his attention back to her face. "I'm not happy that you didn't tell me, and I'm not happy that this is our first undercover assignment, but all things considered, it could be a lot worse."

"Hey guys, I think I got something in th-..." Ryan pulls up short by Beckett's desk as she and Castle's hands fly apart and the two of them try to put as much distance between them as they physically can within four tenths of a second. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?" He grinned back and forth at them, not caring that the identical glares aimed at him could freeze the Hudson. "Practising for this evening, perhaps?"

The pen that hit him square on the forehead did not diminish his grin.


	3. Prompt 3 - high school AU

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

_Prompt 3: high school/college AU  
_

"Hi Kate!" A seventeen year old Kate Beckett sauntered over to her group of friends on the first day back to high school after the summer break and greeted them with hugs. "How was your summer?" Madison asked.

"Yeah, Kate, what's this I hear about a _guy_...?" Lanie grinned and nudged her with her elbow, only to be rewarded with an eye roll.

"So what if there was?" Immediately on the defensive, she folded her arms and sat down on the bleachers. "It was nothing."

"Oh come on, I saw you sucking his face off under the pier, so you can't deny it!" Kate turned to Jennie with her mouth open wide in shock. "What? Was it meant to be a secret?"

Kate growled. "Fine! We met at the beach, went swimming, bowling, just spent a lot of time together I guess."

"And was he cute?" A smile bloomed across her face that she couldn't stop from spreading, making the girls laugh at her as she blushed with her head in her hands.

* * *

"Hey guys, I want you to meet Rick, he's just started here today. Rick, this is Javi, Bob, and Tom." He gave Kevin a nervous smile before turning to the other three guys with a little wave. They chatted for a bit, asking Rick about where he'd been at school before moving to Raybell High and discussing gossip from the summer.

"So Rick, what did you get up to over the vacation?" Tom asked.

He ducked his head and studied his fingernails in an attempt to hide the blush creeping over his cheeks. "I met a girl, at the beach."

"All that way for some girl?" Javi wasn't impressed, nudging Bob and pointing at Rick with a low chuckle and shake of his head.

"She was special." He told them a bit about what he and this mystery girl had got up to and Kevin was grinning by the time he finished.

"She sounds real nice, Rick," Kevin observed and Rick just smiled sappily. "What's her name?"

"Kate Beckett." Rick was too busy wandering his mind's eye to notice the looks and raised eyebrows the guys passed between each other.

"Well, I think she sounds marvellous," Bob piped up.

"Yeah, maybe if you believe in miracles," Tom began, his sentence picked up by Javi.

"Your summer sweetheart will show up again..."

"Somewhere unexpected," Bob finished it off, and the three of them headed off to class, holding in their laughs.

"Do you really think so, Kevin?" Rick asked, eagerly.

Kevin hesitated, but tried to be as positive as possible in his reply, "Sure." He grabbed his bag, "We should head to class."


	4. Prompt 4 - telepathy

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

_Prompt 4: telepathy_

Our heroes find themselves waking in the middle of a cornfield, in the middle of a muddy puddle, the faint echoes of a thunderstorm reverberating in the distance.

_Did I just get struck by lightning? Is this what that feels like? I can't believe that just happened, oh my god, this is ama-_

_Why don't you ever shut up?! _"Castle! Shut! Up!"

_Huh?!_ "I didn't say anything!"

_What the hell, asshole?_ "Yes you did!"

_Hey! _"Hey! Don't call me an asshole, that's mean!"

_Whatever, ass-... uh... _"Hang on, I didn't say that out loud."

They silently turn from their backs onto their sides to face one another.

_Wow, she looks even more beautiful than ever._ Kate's eyes widened, her cheeks suddenly aflame. _And so cute when she blushes._

"Castle!" He blinks, his attention never wavering. _I can hear you thinking._

His jaw drops open in surprise. "Oh my god, Beckett, you just-... and I-... you-..."

_Holy shit this is freakin' awesome! _

* * *

_I have to say, I've never seen a Caskett telepathy fic. Not that I've looked particularly hard, but it could be so funny.  
_


	5. Prompt 5 - handcuffed together

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

_Prompt 5: handcuffed together (so tropey it became canon)  
_

"When I said I wouldn't mind being cuffed to you again, I didn't expect it to be less than a week until it happened," Beckett muttered to herself and sighed. Just over a week until Christmas and she was spending the day handcuffed to her partner. Again.

Once more, she had awoken groggy and confused on her left side, the steel bite of the cuff around her right wrist a cold counterpoint to the warmth she could feel, seemingly all around her. She turned her head slowly to see if her partner was awake but he was still unconscious, his right arm draped loosely over her waist. She returned her head to its previous resting place on his outstretched left arm and snuggled back a little until their bodies were flush together, putting her hand on top of his over her stomach and lacing their fingers together. No point wasting the opportunity to cuddle with Castle after all.

He allowed himself a little smile when Beckett had finished fidgeting, quite content to let her believe he was still incapacitated if it meant spooning with her for a few minutes.


	6. Prompt 6 - snowed in

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

**_Prompt 6: snowed in_**

She throws open the curtains with dismay.

"What do you mean, we're snowed in? Castle, it's the middle of June!"

"Well yeah, Beckett, but we can see Mount Cook from our bedroom window, and that's as high as it gets in New Zealand." He shrugs. "Plus it's winter here."

She folds her arms in protest with a frown. "I wanted to go hiking today."

"I know, but it's okay, because I came prepared for the very predicament we now find ourselves in." He reaches into the drawer he'd unpacked his underwear into a few days before and pulls out Graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows with the most adorably gleeful look on his face.

Kate's not sure whether to laugh at him for his predictability, or at herself for having married a forty-five year old child and chosen to go on honeymoon with him to somewhere deep in the throes of the southern hemisphere's winter.

"Oh, I also brought some..." he extracts a bottle of chocolate sauce from under his clean socks with a wriggle of his eyebrows.

A forty-five year old child with the mind of a horny teenager.


	7. Prompt 7 - next door neighbours AU

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

**_Prompt 7: next-door neighbours AU  
_**

"Here we are, Pumpkin, our new home..." he announces as the key jams in the lock. His lips purse together tightly and he frowns deeply, trying - unsuccessfully - to keep the tears that prickle the back of his eyes from even showing. Alexis gingerly places her hand on his outstretched forearm.

"It's okay, Daddy. It's been a long day. You always tell me I can cry if I need to, and I think you've earned that today." He gives his daughter a watery glance before he slams his eyes shut and shakes his head.

"I'm alright," he grinds his teeth around the words and forces himself to take a deep breath. "Can you take my bag please? I'll try the key again." She nods and he hands over the paper bag of groceries, the clunk and whirr of the elevator echoing down the hallway. This time, the key turns and he opens the door wide for Alexis to enter ahead of him just as the occupant of the elevator exits.

He turns to see who their new neighbour is and has to remind himself to keep his mouth shut instead of letting it hang open in amazement at the beautiful woman striding towards him with a polite and friendly smile.

"Hi, I'm Kate, I live in number nineteen," she points over her shoulder to her closed front door, opposite his open one. She offers her hand and he pauses to look at it in wonder before he takes it in his own.

"Rick. Number twenty." They smile at one another, hands still clasped between them, for a moment before there's a loud bang from within, breaking their eye and hand contact.

"Do you have a cat or a dog or something?" Rick laughs for what feels like the first time in months.

"No, better. An eleven-year-old daughter." He turns to the apartment and calls out, "Hey Alexis, come meet our new neighbour!"

She bounds into view with a grin and immediately starts chattering, "Hi! I'm Alexis! We just moved here, my dad and me! I really like our new apartment, it's smaller than our old place, we had to move out because dad got divorced again and Gina got the loft. Anyway, I have a window seat in my room I can sit on to read and people watch from, do you wanna see it?!"

Kate glances up from Alexis to Rick for a brief moment during Alexis' outburst of information, trying to gauge his reaction. He seems muted, and with a second glance she notices the redness of his eyes. She returns her full attention to Alexis and grins from ear to ear, again offering her hand. "I'm Kate, I've lived here for about a year and a half. I have a window seat in my room too, and you're right, it's perfect for reading and looking out onto the world." Alexis grins back at Kate, but her bubble of excitement seems to be shrinking to nervousness as she looks up at her dad. He pulls himself together quickly and looks at her before she notices the couple of tears that escaped.

"Hey, Dad? Can Kate come to dinner tonight?"

He smiles easily for his daughter, raising his hand to stroke her hair. "Sure, Chef, what're you serving?"

"Spaghetti Bolognese!" she announces with a flurry of arm waving and a fair attempt at an Italian accent. "Will you come, Kate?"

"Wow, Alexis, you can cook?" She gives the young girl a proud smile, "I'd love to join to you and your dad for dinner."

"Great! Knock on the door in an hour! See you later!" She grabs her dad's hand and starts tugging him backwards into the apartment. "In the meantime, we have some serious work to do, Dad! Come on!" He gives Kate a last grateful, hopeful smile before the door snicks quietly shut.

Alone in the hallway, Kate quietly freaks out that Richard Castle has moved into the apartment across the hall from her and that she has less than an hour to get ready before she has dinner with her favourite author and his adorable eleven year old kid.


	8. Prompt 8 - secretly a virgin

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

_Prompt 8: secretly a virgin  
_

She's wrapping her fingers around his and about to pull him away from his front door when he catches a deep enough breath to get any words out. "Kate," his voice rasps. She turns, still walking backwards but his feet are still, and when their arms are outstretched she returns to him, placing her free palm against his chest, over his heart.

"What is it?" she whispers, the sound of her words not leaving the little bubble their bodies have formed. He rests his hand on her hip, closing his eyes on a laboured exhale. "Castle?"

"I... I need to tell you something. A couple things, actually." He clears his throat nervously and glances over at the couch. "Can we sit?" She nods and lets him lead her to the large sofa, trying to make herself comfortable while he seems blind to the tide mark she's leaving on the leather.

When he finally sits down next to her, she angles her body so her knees are touching his thigh gently, hoping he takes some courage from her steady presence. He laces his fingers between hers and takes a deep breath.

"Alexis isn't my daughter."

Kate's jaw drops. Of all the things he could have said in this moment, this was probably as far from what she expected as he could get. She's attempting to formulate a response when he continues.

"When I was dating Meredith, we weren't really exclusive, and I guess she was sleeping around. All of a sudden... it became obvious that she was pregnant, and the tabloids decided the baby was mine. She pleaded with me for us to stay together, that I'd be such a great father, that the biological father wouldn't be able to support the baby at all." He pauses, his shoulders sagging a little. "As you can tell, I accepted. We married, but I refused to ever share a bed with her. Alexis was born and it was the happiest day of my life, I've never fallen in love with anyone the way I fell in love with her that day."

Kate raises her hand to cup his cheek, her smile matching his. For the first time since the front door he looks her in the eye, but she sees tears threatening to spill out. She brushes her thumb across his jaw, silently questioning him, and his lips quirk a little before returning to a neutral position, the smile suddenly dissolved.

"After the divorce, Paula thought it would be a great idea to build up this playboy image, so I went along with it. But it was just that, Kate. An image. I came home from these parties as soon as I could without offending the hosts, to send the babysitter away with twice as much cash as I'd promised, and watch my daughter as she slept. I was only happy with her. Gina noticed, of course, and as a writer it's difficult to not build a close relationship with your editor. She was kind to me when not many of my so-called friends were what they seemed. We spent a lot of time together, and after a while I asked her out. Things progressed, and as you know, we married and then divorced, but she didn't love the real me. She loved the image, the Richard Castle who just didn't exist. She didn't want kids, and she didn't want to even risk the possibility. We, uh..." He takes another deep breath, his eyes focussed on their joined hands, and Kate wonders what more he could possibly reveal. "We never went all the way. In, uh, in the bedroom. We fooled around, and I guess you could say I've had plenty of practice flying solo, but..."

"...you're a virgin." Kate finishes his sentence on a whisper, gazing up at him with almost incredulous eyes. He watches her reactions, collating each flicker of muscle, unsure of how to answer except for a single nod.

The silence stretches on and he's about to fill it with some inane crap about understanding if she didn't want to stay, but then she says something that, when he comes to look back at this night later, should not have surprised him as much as it did.

"Castle, it doesn't matter to me how much, or how little, sexual experience you have. What does matter is that you are a good man. A good father. A good son. A good partner. And I don't mind at all if it takes some practice, but I will be happy to help you add 'a great lover' to that list." When he glances up at her, the cheeky smile that is crinkling her eyes almost melts all his worries away. "We've waited plenty long enough for this that another day, week, month, whatever... however long it takes for us is fine by me. I told you I just want you and I meant it."

He leans in and leaves a sweet kiss at the corner of her mouth. "Kate?" She hums a questioning reply as they look into each others eyes with matching smiles. "Can we just cuddle?"

Her blinding grin is answer enough as she stands and pulls him towards his bedroom.


	9. Prompt 9 - be careful what you wish for

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

* * *

___Prompt _9: be careful what you wish for (Castle)

"I so wish I could kiss you right now," he whispers. A shy smile crosses her face but before she can duck her head in an attempt to hide her blush he's moving towards her, capturing her cheeks in his hands and pressing his lips to hers. She grabs at his lapels to steady herself after the initial shock and pulls him infinitesimally closer, while his left hand strays into her hair and he hooks his elbow around her shoulder. Slowly they pull apart, her bottom lip trapped a second longer between his lips, and their eyes sparkle as they begin to grin at each other.

Gates clears her throat.

Castle and Beckett jump apart, twelve inches separating them immediately. "Uh, sir, I... we... ah..."

"Save it, Beckett," Gates orders, Beckett slamming her teeth together just to stop herself from yammering on any longer. "Mr Castle. You had better treat her right, or I know eight detectives, five officers, and one captain who know how to dispose of a body without there being any trace left of it." Castle's jaw drops. "Detective? Keep a lid on the PDA in the precinct." She starts to walk away, and the couple's attention is drawn to the surprised faces of ninety percent of the fourth floor of the Twelfth Precinct, plus two very smug grins on a certain pair of partners.

"Oh, and one more thing," Gates stops to have a final word over her shoulder, a small smile playing at her eyes. "It's about damn time."


	10. Prompt 10 - accidental baby acquisition

_Any resemblance to other, previously written fics, is purely coincidental and should be taken as a compliment that you nailed the trope. However, if you think there's any chance of underhanded copy-pasting, please contact me by PM and we'll discuss it.  
_

_Posting this today as I have the next chapter of my Ficathon 2014 story in the edit stage, but it's proving a bit tricky. Couple more days and I'll nail it._

* * *

___Prompt 10: accidental baby acquisition_

Just as Castle disappears into the break room to fix some coffee for them both, a familiar voice speaks from right next to her.

"Hi Kate, how're you doing?"

Beckett looks up from her paperwork to find Jenny by her desk with eight month old Sarah Grace on her hip and gives them both a wide smile as she stands up to hug them. "I'm good, how're you?" She tickles Sarah Grace's tummy, the little one's giggle resounding across the bullpen.

"Alright, just thought we'd come and visit daddy today, right Sarah Grace?" She receives a solemn nod in response. Kate smirks but Jenny looks grave and pales suddenly. "Kate, can you-..." she passes Sarah Grace across quickly and dashes to the ladies bathroom.

Kate and her niece watch Jenny run until the bathroom door shuts before they both turn to look at each other in surprise and uncertainty. "Mommy just really needed to pee," she tells Sarah Grace, and sits down in her chair with the little girl on her left knee. "You came to visit Daddy, huh?"

"Dada..." she sighs, and rests her head on Kate's shoulder, gently running her fingers across the long curls of her aunt's soft hair.

Kate leans her cheek on the little head and shuts her eyes, unaware that Sarah Grace has done the same until she hears the tell-tale click of an iPhone camera shutter and Castle whispering to Jenny a few minutes later, "That's so adorable."

* * *

_I know, it's not quite the prompt, but it was this or an insert for 6x10 and I ended up liking this better. Thanks for helping me figure it out, Lou!_


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